Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit Meaning

Song Released: 1967

White Rabbit Lyrics

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   BeadedOwl

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   Sep 13th 2009 !⃝

   My own experiences in the 60's greatly influence my interpretation of White Rabbit. This was a time of naivete, innocence, confusion, hard decisions, stress and thought provocation. White Rabbit acknowledges that advice from older generations do not seem to make sense in our current world, and we are more open to look to unconventional solutions. Everyone was looking for better answers or explanations and looking in some unfulfilling places (like drugs). This song seemed to offer some very good advise using an "Alice in Wonderland" analogy. Alice was naive, innocent and looking for answers. In pursuit of her answers she follows unfamiliar elements to a unreal world. As she wanders through this world looking for answers she experiences and learns many lessons. White Rabbit advises us to ask Alice (who has already tried the 'unreal' route looking for answers) before we accept, try or count-on alternate sources of answers - 'don't take drugs' is the message I heard. Keep learning and acquiring knowledge to fill your head with better understanding of the real world is the best course for us to follow and not get 'lost' down a rabbit hole. Open our eyes to see and live in the real world with all of its imperfections; not to retreat into a world made up of wishful, unrealistic 'trips'. WAKE UP! Learn from Alice's mistakes. Don't wish for things to be better...work for them to be better.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Aug 30th 2008 !⃝

   Alright the song is about drugs....I mean a lot of people don't want to admit it but grace slick...an the rest of the airplanes where from san fran...1965 big acid wave...but the lyric" an you just had some kind of mushroom and your mind is growing long"....MUSHROOMS people my god its not even hidden every drug refrence is put in there clear as anything....but this is a great band along with every other 60's band....peace love an acid
3. anonymous

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   Jul 8th 2016 !⃝

   All songs have a story behind them. It is up to the listener to interpret them properly. If the song becomes a hit, the band makes money. I perceived it as a mix of Alice in Wonderland, drugs, (go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall)protest(Vietnam war) and placebos(the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all). Grace Slick was a great singer and helped Starship grow with her vocals. I wish I would have seen them in concert.
4. anonymous

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   Dec 20th 2015 !⃝

   Wake up. The music is a rebellious drum march. Any anti drug info from Grace is just she wants to make money on it now as an old white haired freak. The music just chugs along . Cassidy is hitting it hard . The guitar solo Olin the intro is just haunting . Artists are Artists. Sometimes not good to iverinterpret. This is about altered states. Yet it is one of the best songs from an American Band Ever!
5. kooljohn176

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   Oct 16th 2015 !⃝

   Great song, but stay away from certain drugs to expierience the ''Alice in Wonderland'' story in a vividly form that comes alive by the use of cerain drugs in the dissociate family like ''angel dust'' [pcp] that on a bad trip you can actually see and feel yourself with your body shrinking very small, while everything around you seems that is getting very large in the high by the drug that tricks your mind to feel the exploring terror of being sucked down the rabbit's hole for food in the fear that you would be eaten alive.
6. anonymous

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   Sep 12th 2013 !⃝

   are u serious?! its obviously about degrating parents and abusing drugs.
7. anonymous

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   Aug 29th 2013 !⃝

   OK, let's clarify an older post. Alice in Wonderland was written by Lewis who did drugs (as did his friend Walt Disney) and NOT with any relation to the Wizard of Oz's three characters. Someone does not know their literature. It is about Drugs and Alice had the Drink me and Eat me items (LSD in liquid form added to drinks for women and Mushrooms to eat). While it makes sense for folks to believe the media hype for the band members who are in desperate need to be clean, the continued use would not make them poster children preaching anti-drugs to their throng of followers who are also using. Yes, this and many other songs during this time are about double meanings and trying to get past the morality patrol of the air waves.
8. anonymous

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   Jan 14th 2013 !⃝

   to understand the slang of the era, growing up in the haight ashbury district in the 1960's was all about experimenting with acid, maryjane, hash, etc...
   back in the day hippies would get high on grass and read alice in wonderland.
   the book became very popular with the flower children of san fransisco because it had a catipillar smoking a pipe on the cover and angel trumphet or datura (also called deadly nightshade) plant growing in the background. not a marijuana plant, because the flower was that of the former not later. this meant that lewis carol knew all about smoking and so did all our funky old grand parents were stoners when it was legal.
9. anonymous

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   Jan 10th 2013 !⃝

   Grace has said herself it is anti-drug...the words are wrong people...it's keep your head...listen...it's a k...also keep your head makes sense since the queen wants to take it off...She wrote the song...not with the Jefferson Airplane but The Great Society...google is your friend...trust me the words are wrong...
10. anonymous

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    Apr 16th 2012 !⃝

    Often words and lyrics can have double meanings and this song is a good example. many of the lyrics are about drugs- thats obvious the good and the bad- one interapration says its a anti-war song I Wonder?
11. anonymous

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    Jul 25th 2011 !⃝

    The song is about a woman who loves a man who obtains a very large sum of money.
    
    One pill makes you larger, is for a more powerfull erection like Viagra, to make his penis larger. He only takes one so he is a small man.
    The one your mother gives you, is a large mansion in the city that he leaves vacant just rotting away.
    Go ask alice, alice is slang for a waitress in a coffee shop. He goes there often because he is frightened and lonely.
    Chasing rabbits, is refering to having sex with prostitutes.
    Hooka smoking caterpillar, hooka is slang for a prostitute. Caterpillar is slang for marijuana buds.
    Men on the Chessboard, refers to he gets in a fight with a real chess player because he is winning.
    Some kind of mushroom, refers to his best friend trys to poison him with wild mushrooms to marry his girlfriend.
    Logic and proportion, is about his gambling budget. He loses alot of money in the stock market and playing poker.
    White Knight, is refering to a suit of armour that he has purchased to display in his foyer.
    Red queen, is about an incident with the police for resisting arrest many years before. The policeman who arrested him still badgers him everyday.
    The Door Mouse, could be a doorman in front of a very expensive hotel.
    (brace yourself)
    Feed your head, feed is slang for when a prostitute swallows a jonny's sperm the act of felacio. The only sex he has ever had.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    Jul 20th 2011 !⃝

    Ok people this song is about DRUGS!!! Even Alice in Wonderland is. The lion represents the anger, scarecrow shows no feeling, and the tin can dude shows emptiness. It is the 3 stages of addiction. The song is talking abiut how some pills will make you feel smaller or larger when you are high. "Go ask Alice when shes 10 ft tall" OBVIOSLY represents being high. And when she says "the ones that mother gives you dont do anything at all" she is fomparing the drugs that make you highto the over the counter medication your mother gives you when you are sick. All of Alice and Wonderland is all about Alice getting high. And all the plants you see is supposed to be marijuana. i mean she even mentions mushrooms. She is talking about how it feels to get high. Kid stories oftenhide meanings like this For example, even in Snow White, the seven dwarfs represent the stages of becoming addicted to drugs. And snow white IS the drug! If you have any more questions, contact me at leahbelay1@aol.com. I mught be able to answer some of your questions...
13. anonymous

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    Dec 5th 2010 !⃝

    Come on people, Get REAL! It talks about DRUGS and Grace Slice was singing about the experiences of the psychedelic 60's in San Fransisco, the start of the flower power generation. An innocent Alice was talking about discovery. IT IS ABOUT DRUGS and FLING HIGH, LEARNING, Tripping on acid, Discovery, PERIOD!!!
14. anonymous

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    Oct 21st 2009 !⃝

    The song was not used to highlight the book "Go Ask Alice", the book was titled that because of the song. The song is about drug use in the 60's, not about the fairytale.
15. anonymous

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    Feb 10th 2009 !⃝

    This is clearly a reference to Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The song apparently was also used to highlight the book Go Ask Alice.
16. anonymous

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    Feb 10th 2009 !⃝

    I think this song speaks of drugs and the way they make you feel for example once tall and once small. What better way to describe it than the story of Alice in wonderland.
17. anonymous

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    Dec 8th 2008 !⃝

    I think that when grace wrote this song she was trippin. i dont think there is a deep meaning to this song because back in the day they made music because they loved music not so that they could send a message to a mom or dad.
    thats not even the people who listened to their music so why would they try to reach out to them???

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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